President Barack Obama is on the verge of granting executive amnesty and work permits to five million illegal immigrants, including the illegal immigrant parents of children who are American citizens or previously received executive amnesty under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012.
According to a Thursday New York Times report, which confirmed an earlier Fox News story, Obama will give executive amnesty to “up to five million” illegal immigrants, which would remove “the threat of deportation” and provide them work permits to take nearly every job in America. Obama intends to act as early as next week.
Fox News obtained a draft of Obama’s proposed ten-point executive amnesty on Wednesday. The outlet also reported that after Obama enacts the executive amnesty–as early as next Friday–the Department of Homeland Security is planning to “promote” the executive amnesty by offering “a 50 percent discount on the first 10,000 applicants who come forward, with the exception of those who have income levels above 200 percent of the poverty level.”
Obama is reportedly considering granting temporary amnesty and work permits to nearly 3.3 million illegal immigrants who are parents of children who are “American citizens or legal residents”–as long as they have been in the country for at least five years. The White House reportedly may consider “a stricter policy that would limit the benefits to people who have lived in the country for at least 10 years, or about 2.5 million people,” according to the Times.
In addition, the White House reportedly will give executive amnesty to one million more DREAMers and their parents in addition to expanding “opportunities for immigrants who have high-tech skills,” presumably in the form of more guest-worker visas to high-tech companies that have been clamoring for them to reduce wages during a time in which there is a surplus of American high-tech workers.
The Obama administration will reportedly revamp the “Secure Communities” program and “provide clearer guidance” to immigration agents regarding illegal immigrants without criminal histories who will now be a “low priority for deportation.”
Fifty-six House Republicans wrote a letter urging House Republican leaders to prohibit the White House from spending federal funds to implement Obama’s forthcoming executive amnesty, which Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Mike Lee (R-UT) have been advocating. Sessions, who has been the staunchest opponent of executive amnesty, reiterated this week that the executive amnesty is not only illegal, but would also encourage and incentivize more illegal immigration while lowering the wages of struggling American workers. During a Wednesday Fox News appearance, Sessions said Obama’s executive amnesty will undermine the rule of law by making it impossible to enforce laws. He has also urged Republicans in Congress to hold the line and not cave in prohibiting funding for Obama’s executive amnesty.
“We cannot yield to open borders,” Sessions wrote in Politico this week. “We cannot let one executive edict erase the immigration laws of an entire nation. If we believe America is a sovereign country, with enforceable boundaries, and a duty to protect its own people, then we have no choice but to fight and to win.”
Obama vows to enact his executive amnesty before the end of the year, even after some Democrats have urged him to delay it yet again. Voters also sent Obama that message in the midterm elections, in which Republicans took back the Senate, in large part, because voters were opposed to Obama’s executive amnesty. Exit polling found that nearly 75% of voters did not want Obama to unilaterally act on immigration, and another 80% did not want foreigners or legal immigrants in the country to take jobs from American workers.